


"Do you honestly think it’s that easy?"

by Iarinthel



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, mostly just Kaidan thinking about Shepard, no specific situation outlined, very vague
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 09:19:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1977477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iarinthel/pseuds/Iarinthel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaidan asks Shepard something, and the answer says a lot about her as a person. He muses on Shepard's character and his role as her lover in the Reaper War.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Do you honestly think it’s that easy?"

That was the question, wasn’t it? In this war, this struggle for survival, almost nothing was easy, especially for Shepard. The weight of the galaxy rests on her shoulders, every decision she makes could potentially influence the chances of survival for every sentient being in the galaxy. Not only the larger decisions like curing the genophage or allowing the Rachni Queen to live, sometimes even little things like allowing authorization for civilian militia on the Citadel and scanning a planet for useful resources can save lives. Kaidan can only dimly imagine the pressure that kind of responsibility puts on her.

Maybe asking her a question like this wasn’t such a good idea. He should probably take it back…

"No, I don’t. But that doesn’t matter. I’ll do what needs to be done. Just like I always have."

That, more than anything else, sums up basically all of Shepard’s military history and everything she’s done since her resurrection. Someone needed to defend Elysium from batarian raiders, so she did. Saren needed to be stopped and she chased him all over the Milky Way galaxy to do so. The Collectors were abducting humans from various colonies and no one was doing anything to stop them. With the Citadel Council blissfully ignoring a clear threat and the Alliance being too slow to mobilize Shepard used Cerberus resources to go into the core of the galaxy to destroy the Collector home base herself.

She sees a problem, finds out everything she can about it, makes a plan and does what she can to fix it while adapting to anything unexpected thrown at her at the same time. No matter what the universe throws at her, including her own death, she never stops, never wavers. It makes her a great ally to have by your side, and a terrifying foe to face. Such unflagging determination made her not only the most decorated officer in the Alliance fleet, it’s also helped her time and again in her myriad adventures as the first human Spectre.

Her determination can become obstinacy in the worst times however. She refuses to stop and rest when in the middle of a mission, no matter how badly wounded she is or how tired she gets from running for so long. Dr. Chakwas has literally had to do intensive surgery on Shepard on an almost weekly basis ever since the Reapers invaded Earth. One memorable incident being a post-op routine devolving into a shouting match after Chakwas found out that Shepard charged a Brute and almost got squashed underneath its dead collapsing corpse. She can also be rather picky about food, and mixing that with her stubbornness makes feeding her a bit of a chore. Especially with her biotic metabolism. She’ll only eat certain types of food if they are prepared a certain type of way and in large quantities. It can be a drain on resources to feed her, and everyone else on the Normandy.

He can only do what he can to keep her healthy. Either by making sure she actually takes some time to rest on their shore leave or by assisting with the reports. Any way he can help her, no matter how small, he will do so.

After all, isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you love someone?

Share the burden so that they won’t exhaust themselves carrying it on their own?

He certainly thinks so.

And he’ll do what he can to show Shepard exactly that.


End file.
